EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - NATO and the EU are far from capable of tackling a world crisis jointly as their relationship is still "problematic" and sees a "remarkable distance" between them - partly due to European fears over US influence, NATO's chief has said.

Speaking to EU officials in a Berlin conference hosted by the German foreign ministry on Monday (29 January), the North Atlantic Treaty Alliance's secretary general Jaap de Hoop Scheffer said it is "astounding" how far from the envisaged "strategic partnership" the two institutions have remained despite attempts to bring them closer.

"Some deliberately want to keep NATO and the EU at a distance from one another. For this school of thought, a closer relationship between NATO and the EU means excessive influence for the USA."

"I do not share European instinctive fears about undue influence of the USA in European affairs anyhow. Europe is sufficiently self-aware â and they know it in Washington too," Mr De Hoop Scheffer argued.

I think the risk of the EU joining Nato as a whole is that it will further the pro-superstate argument, more of a fait accompli.

On the upside, it will be sufficently large to counter US domination - more people. Rather than meekly following in US footsteps as Britain does at this time, an EU would happily argue the point with the US or as a whle, refuse to get involved - the US couldn't brow-beat the whole of the EU . . . could it?